Experimental study of L‐shaped precast RC shear walls with middle cast‐in‐situ joint

Precast shear walls, as an environmentally friendly building system, have been vigorously developed in China. There are many vertical and horizontal joints on precast reinforced concrete shear wall system, which certainly have a significant effect on seismic performance of structures. In this paper, 3 L‐shaped precast reinforced concrete shear walls that were assembled by 2 precast parts through a middle cast‐in‐situ joint and a compared 1 completely cast‐in‐situ were tested under low frequency cyclic loading to investigate their seismic behaviors. The vertical distributed reinforcements in the three precast specimens were equivalently spliced by grouting sleeves arranged along the center line of the wall, and the horizontal reinforcements were directly anchored in cast‐in‐situ joints. The experimental results, including failure mode, yielding load and displacement, skeleton curve, energy dissipation, stiffness degradation, ductility, and so forth were presented in the paper. The results show that the precast specimens have similar bearing capacity whereas much better deformation capacity and ductility compared to the cast‐in‐situ specimen. Additionally, the experimental results of ultimate shear capacity of specimens were also compared with that of the calculation results. These results indicate that the tested precast shear walls have good and reliable seismic performance and can be used as a structural member in engineering projects.